Create a Monthly Business Review (MBR) Agent

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for creating an MBR (Monthly Business Review) Agent, which is designed to streamline the preparation process for MBRs. By following the guide, users will learn how to query resources and obtain quick answers, ultimately enhancing efficiency and organization for business reviews. It’s a valuable tool for anyone looking to optimize their workflow and ensure they are well-prepared for important business discussions.

Lab Details

Level Persona Duration Purpose
100 Maker/Developer 20 minutes After completing this lab, participants will be able to create a conversational agent hosted in SharePoint. You’ll learn how to add knowledge sources, test and publish to SharePoint.

Table of Contents

Why This Matters

Managers and Team Leads – Drowning in slide decks, scattered data, and last-minute scramble sessions before Monthly Business Reviews?

Think of a traditional MBR prep process:
- Without agents: Leaders dig through dozens of decks, copy/paste insights, manually summarize risks and themes, and chase down team updates – all while trying to spot patterns across silos
- With agents: AI reads files from SharePoint, extracts key themes (like at-risk deals or blockers), and delivers concise summaries you can act on – no digging required

Common challenges solved by this lab: - We waste hours each month trying to consolidate MBR decks from every team - Leadership misses key risks or repetitive asks buried in PowerPoint files - It’s hard to spot trends across different teams without a data analyst - We’re reactive instead of proactive when it comes to business risks

In just 20 minutes, you’ll learn how to build an agent that helps leaders get to the so what faster—turning static decks into actionable insights.

Introduction

Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs) are critical for keeping leadership informed, identifying risks, and aligning on key initiatives. But the preparation process is often tedious and fragmented, requiring hours of manual effort to gather, review, and summarize insights from multiple teams.

Real-world example: A regional sales org prepares for its MBR by collecting slide decks from over 10 team leads. Each deck includes updates, at-risk deals, and escalations—buried across inconsistent formats and file names. A single director spends 4–6 hours manually scanning each one, summarizing recurring themes, and building a master summary for leadership.

After implementing an agent, the director simply prompts the system to scan the latest MBR files in SharePoint. Within seconds, the agent highlights common risks, summarizes recurring asks, and surfaces trends across teams. Now the director can focus on strategic insights—not file wrangling.

Core Concepts Overview

Concept Why it matters
Conversational Agent Powers natural, chat-like interactions so users can ask about MBR themes, risks, and takeaways without needing to dig through files manually
Knowledge Enables the agent to read and understand content from past MBR decks stored in SharePoint, so it can extract relevant insights and patterns
Testing in Copilot Studio Helps you validate that the agent understands user intent and returns accurate, useful responses before it’s shared with others
Publishing to SharePoint Makes the agent accessible to your team directly from a SharePoint site, so anyone preparing for an MBR can use it on demand
SharePoint Agent Setup Seamlessly integrates with your existing file storage so your agent always has access to the latest MBR decks—no need to move files around
## Documentation and Additional Training Links
## Prerequisites
* Access to Microsoft Copilot Studio with appropriate licensing * Microsoft 365 environment with SharePoint access

Summary of Targets

In this lab, you’ll build a conversational MBR agent that streamlines how managers and leaders access insights across Monthly Business Review decks. By the end of the lab, you will:

## Use Cases Covered
| Step | Use Case | Value added | Effort | |——|———-|————-|——–| | 1 | Create SharePoint site and upload MBR documents | Establish centralized document repository for MBR data that the agent can access | 10 min | | 2 | Build and deploy MBR agent | Create intelligent agent that analyzes MBR documents and provides instant insights | 10 min |

Instructions by Use Case

Use Case #1: Create SharePoint site and upload MBR documents

Set up a dedicated SharePoint site with MBR documents that will serve as the knowledge source for your agent.

Use case Value added Estimated effort
Create SharePoint site and upload MBR documents Establish centralized document repository for MBR data that the agent can access 10 minutes

Summary of tasks

In this section, you’ll create a SharePoint team site and upload sample MBR documents that will serve as the knowledge base for your agent.

Scenario: Your organization needs a centralized location for Monthly Business Review documents that can be easily accessed by an AI agent to provide instant insights and summaries.

Objective

Create a SharePoint site with MBR documents that will serve as the knowledge source for your conversational agent.

Step-by-step instructions

Create SharePoint site

  1. Go to m365.cloud.microsoft/apps/ and select SharePoint
SharePoint
  1. Select Create Site
Create Site
  1. Select Team Site
Team Site
  1. Select Standard team
Standard Team
  1. Select Use Template
Use Template
  1. Put MBR - <Your User Name> in the Site Name and Select Next
Create Site
  1. Click Finish
Select Finish

Upload MBR documents

Important:

For training participants: If you are following this lab as part of a guided training session, the MBR documents have already been uploaded to SharePoint at the location specified in your Lab Resources. You can skip this use case and proceed directly to Use Case #2.

  1. Navigate to the sample files folder and download the sample files

  2. Select Documents in the left navigation

Open Document Library
  1. Select Upload
Upload Files
  1. Select all the sample files you just downloaded and click Open
Select Open

Congratulations! You’ve set up your SharePoint site with MBR documents!

Test your understanding

Key takeaways:

  • Centralized storage – SharePoint provides a secure, accessible location for business documents
  • Document organization – Proper file structure enables better agent knowledge extraction
  • Access permissions – SharePoint security ensures only authorized users can access sensitive MBR data

Challenge: Apply this to your own use case

  • What other business review documents could benefit from AI agent analysis?
  • How would you organize files to make them more discoverable by agents?
  • What security considerations are important for your organization’s sensitive documents?

Use Case #2: Build and deploy MBR agent

Create an intelligent conversational agent that can analyze your MBR documents and provide instant insights.

Use case Value added Estimated effort
Build and deploy MBR agent Create intelligent agent that analyzes MBR documents and provides instant insights 10 minutes

Summary of tasks

In this section, you’ll create a Copilot Studio agent, connect it to your SharePoint documents, test its capabilities, and deploy it back to SharePoint for team access.

Scenario: Build an AI assistant that can instantly answer questions about MBR content, identify common risks and themes, and help leadership prepare for business reviews more efficiently.

Objective

Create, configure, test, and deploy a conversational MBR agent that leverages SharePoint documents as its knowledge source.

Step-by-step instructions

Create the agent in Copilot Studio

  1. Open a new browser tab and navigate to copilotstudio.microsoft.com. Select Create
Select Create
  1. Select New agent
Select New Agent

  1. Select the Configure tab

  2. In the Name field type MBR Agent. In the Description field type, This agent helps in preparing for Monthly Business Reviews. It queries MBR resources and provides quick answers

Fill out Agent Details

  1. Select ... to go into Edit advanced settings. Make sure the agent is created as part of one of your solutions.

  2. Select Create

Select Create

Add SharePoint knowledge source

  1. Select Add knowledge
Select Add Knowledge
  1. Select SharePoint
Select SharePoint
  1. Paste the URL of your SharePoint site folder where the MBR documents are located in the text input
Important:

If these files have already been uploaded for you, use the URL provided in Lab Resources (specific per training).

Paste SharePoint URL
  1. Select Add
Select Add Knowledge
  1. Select Add again
Select Add

Test the agent

  1. Now we need to test our agent to see if it returns answers from our knowledge.
Test Panel
  1. Type what deals are currently in the negotiation stage? and send the message.
Test the agent
  1. Review the answer in the test window and notice the logic in the Activity Pane on the left hand side
Review the answer

Publish and deploy to SharePoint

  1. Now that we know the agent is working, we need to publish our changes by selecting the Publish button in the upper right hand corner.
Select Publish
  1. Now it’s time to deploy our agent to SharePoint. Select the Channels tab.
Select Channels
  1. Select SharePoint
Select SharePoint
  1. Select or search the SharePoint site you created in the previous steps from the list of options
Important: Only sites where the user has Edit permissions can be used. Otherwise, an error will be displayed.
Select the SharePoint Site
  1. Select Deploy
Select Deploy

Test the deployed agent

  1. Select the ... next to the Deployed text and select Copy Agent Url. Open a new browser tab and paste in the URL.
Select Copy Site URL
  1. Your agent will open up in SharePoint. Test it out by typing What are the top 3 blockers? in the text input and pressing Return
Testing the agent
  1. Review the answer and note that it provides links to the referenced documents.
Review the first test
  1. Perform another test by typing Which reps requested additional pre-sales support? and pressing Return
Testing the agent
  1. Review your response. Congratulations! You’ve built and deployed your SharePoint MBR Agent!
Review the second test results

Congratulations! You’ve built and deployed your SharePoint MBR Agent!

Test your understanding

Key takeaways:

  • Knowledge integration – Agents can directly access and analyze SharePoint documents for contextual responses
  • Testing importance – Always validate agent responses before deployment to ensure accuracy
  • Deployment flexibility – Agents can be deployed directly to SharePoint for seamless user access
  • Reference linking – Well-configured agents provide source citations for transparency and verification

Lessons learned & troubleshooting tips:

  • Test with various question types to ensure comprehensive knowledge coverage
  • Check that agent responses include proper source citations
  • Verify deployment permissions align with your organization’s security requirements
  • Remember that agents need time to index new documents after knowledge source updates

Challenge: Apply this to your own use case

  • What other business processes could benefit from document-based AI agents?
  • How would you customize the agent’s instructions for different audiences (executives vs. managers)?
  • What additional knowledge sources could enhance the agent’s capabilities?
  • How might you structure MBR documents to optimize agent performance?

Summary of Learnings

True learning comes from doing, questioning, and reflecting—so let’s put your skills to the test.

To maximize the impact of your MBR Agent:

Conclusions & Recommendations

MBR Agent golden rules:

By following these principles, you’ll create MBR agents that not only provide accurate information but transform how leadership teams prepare for and conduct business reviews, turning hours of manual document review into minutes of intelligent conversation.